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<title>Day 1: Shackles by Hylla_Tavorian_Aldan</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26832220">Day 1: Shackles</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hylla_Tavorian_Aldan/pseuds/Hylla_Tavorian_Aldan'>Hylla_Tavorian_Aldan</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Cults, Demon Summoning, Demon/Human Relationships, Demonic Possession, Gen, Human Sacrifice, Succubi &amp; Incubi, no beta we die like men</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:42:23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,025</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26832220</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hylla_Tavorian_Aldan/pseuds/Hylla_Tavorian_Aldan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sage Peregrine didn't ask to be forced to harbor an incubus within her own body. Since they're both stuck together, they might as well make do with whatever they have.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Day 1: Shackles</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A thing I wrote for Whumptober. More one-shots to come, albeit incredibly sporadically because I have school and terrible pacing skills.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sage Peregrine hadn’t known what would happen when the cult summoned Phenemor and bound them to each other for the sake of science. Or their twisted meaning of the word, anyway.</p><p>She remembered how it felt when he’d been forced inside her—a foreign presence that felt wrong and out of place, like a second heart had been shoved inside her chest and the person who did it refused to give her time to adjust to the new organ.</p><p>And then, as though things couldn’t get any worse, she heard him <em>speaking in her head. </em></p><p><b> <em>“These pathetic mongrels need to pay for their crimes,”</em> </b> he snarled.<b><em>“I’ll tear them all to shreds and dance in the shower of their blood!”</em> </b></p><p>His voice wasn’t growly or deep like she assumed most demons were. It was smooth, comforting, like the voice of an old friend she’d known for years. But lacing his words was a dark, primal <em>rage </em>that would’ve terrified her if his proposal wasn’t so tempting.</p><p><em> “And how do you propose we do that?” </em> she asked, jerking her wrists and ankles slightly, which were bound in chains that trapped her on a cold metal table. <em> “Furthermore, what’s stopping you from taking over my body indefinitely?” </em></p><p><b> <em>“HA! If I could, I would’ve taken over your body as soon as I was shoved into it,”</em> </b> he scoffed. <b> <em>“I can’t take over your body without your verbal consent, mortal. Consider yourself lucky.”</em> </b></p><p><em> “I’m flattered,” </em> she replied flatly. <em>But it’s not like I have a choice in the matter.” </em></p><p><b> <em>“There’s </em></b><b>always</b> <b><em>a choice. It just so happens this is the choice where neither of us ends up </em> </b> <b>dead</b><b><em>.”</em> </b></p><p>
  <em>"Fine. Just get it over with." </em>
</p><p>As soon as she finished speaking, the air was ripped from her lungs, and her consciousness was shoved to the dark recesses of someone else’s mind. All she could do was stand helplessly by as her skin shifted from dusty tan to dark grey, and her hair magically shorted and curled and became a bright shade of strawberry red. She felt her teeth elongate into fangs, her sclera turn black and her irises turn yellow. The tips of her ears grew long and pointed, her breasts shrunk back until her chest was completely flat, and curled black horns that looked like they’d been carved from a tree sprouted from her forehead.</p><p>The most horrifying change, however, was when her legs began splitting in half, narrowing at the ends and sprouting suckers until the lower half of her body was replaced with eight writhing tentacles.</p><p>As soon as the transformation was complete, Phenemor—having turned Sage’s body into a vessel befitting a demon such as him—easily broke through the chains binding Sage’s—<em>his </em>wrists, and removed his tentacles from the ones that had bound what had formerly been her ankles.</p><p>“Stop him!” someone yells. But before they can do anything, a tentacle shoots out and wraps itself around the cultist’s neck, yanking them forward and lifting them into the air.</p><p>“Normally, I’d fuck the brains out of everyone here and leave your corpses for the authorities to find,” Phenemor hums, tightening his grip on the cultist’s neck. “Unfortunately…”</p><p>Phenemor bared his teeth, sharp and pointed like a shark’s. Then, without warning, he wrapped the tentacle around the cultist’s head and promptly snapped their neck, letting their corpse fall limply to the floor. Everyone else in the room took a few steps back, pressed themselves against the wall or brandished weapons in the futile hope they stood the smallest chance of defeating him.</p><p>“…I’m going to do things a bit <em>differently </em> this time around.”</p>
<hr/><p>By the time Sage came to, she was back in her own body, and all of the extra add-ons had vanished, leaving her with normal human features and body parts, much to her relief.</p><p>However, when she saw the countless dead bodies littering the room—some sporting snapped necks, others gaping holes in their chest or stomach, and still others having been <em>literally </em>torn limb from limb—for a brief moment, she sincerely wished she was still nestled in the back of Phenemor’s mind: distantly aware of what was happening in the real world but not <em>really </em>understanding what was happening, much less how she should react.</p><p>She felt herself become lightheaded, and swayed slightly on her feet as nausea settled in her stomach, intrusive and unwanted like a certain demon with whom she was forced to share her body and mind.</p><p>“Did you have to be so brutal?” Sage managed to ask, her voice a bit strangled as she took a small step back.</p><p><b> <em>“No, I suppose not,”</em> </b> Phenemor hummed. <b> <em>“But they all had it coming. You should be thanking me for keeping your precious human body intact.”</em> </b></p><p>“Fine, but you didn’t have to <em>kill them all</em>,” she snapped.</p><p><b> <em>“Didn’t I? If we’d escaped without killing them first, they would’ve hunted us down and brought us right back here. Besides, it’s not like they </em> </b> <b>deserved</b> <b> <em> to live, after everything they put you through.”</em> </b></p><p>Sage tightened her jaw for a moment, inhaling and exhaling through her nostrils as she gingerly began picking around the corpses on the floor, her bare feet cold against the stone floor.</p><p><b> <em>“Where are you going?”</em> </b> Phenemor asked, his voice more curious than irritated as she neared the door.</p><p>“I’m going to find my way out of here,” she muttered. “Then, I’m going to find out where I am and go home.”</p><p><b> <em>“To who?”</em> </b> he asked incredulously. <b> <em>“Your family? Do you honestly think they’ll take you in once they find out you’re sharing your body with a demon?”</em> </b></p><p>This caused Sage to give pause, her dirt-stained hand hovering just over the doorknob. “…I don’t know. But I have to try. Besides, it’s not like you can do anything to ruin my prospects, seeing as you can’t control my body without my say-so.”</p><p>She heard Phenemor growl lowly in her head, and she took a bitter sort of satisfaction at his helplessness.</p><p>“I’m going home,” she said, turning the doorknob and throwing it open. “And whether you like it or not, you’re going to be right there with me.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I bet there's gonna be so many fucking grammar mistakes. Oh! Also, the reason I put this under multiple fandoms is because I'm not entirely sure which one I wanna use it for yet XD Or if I just wanna turn it into its own original thing, for that matter.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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